Spyier Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?
Spyier Overview
Spyier is a spy app that secretly monitors and records everything that happens on Android or iOS devices. I wanted to check whether the features worked as advertised and if it’s really undetectable, so I installed Spyier on my daughter’s Android phone.
Spyier has a keylogger that records every keystroke and tracks most chats sent by major social media networks. However, it lacks some of the most basic features any premium parental control app comes with, like a web filter and screen time limits.
If you need these features, which are extremely valuable, check Qustodio instead. In addition to its excellent monitoring features, Qustodio also has a comprehensive web filter and customizable screen time limits. With its current generous offer, you can even try it completely free for 30 days – no credit card needed – to test it on your family and see how crucial these features are.
Try Qustodio Free for 30 Days!
In A Rush? Here’s a Spyier 1-Minute Summary
- See who is communicating with your child through the call log and SMS tracker. The system tracks the date, time, and length of the phone call. All incoming and outgoing SMS messages are recorded and can be read through the dashboard. For more information, click here.
- No Live Location or Geofence, Instead, Spyier updates every 30 minutes to show the last known location. Find out more about location tracking here.
- Records browser history but not search history. The dashboard maintains a record of each website that is opened and gives details about the site. You can read about this feature here.
- See what apps are installed on the phone, but it doesn’t provide any data about the apps. Read here to find out how to manage the apps on your child’s phone.
Features
Spyier isn’t the most feature-packed spy app that I have tested. If you are looking for an app that takes screenshots of the child’s device, records phone calls, or gives parents remote access to the device’s microphone or camera, Spyier is not a good fit for you. You are better off with SPYERA, which can do all this and more.
Having said that, Spyier does have a stealth mode, so you can install it on the child’s phone, and it won’t show an icon or appear in the directory folders. But in order to do so, I needed physical access to my daughter’s phone to install it – so it wasn’t completely hidden.
But enough about what Spyier can’t do, let’s take a look at what it can do. The first thing that stood out is that I didn’t have to root my daughter’s phone to install Spyier and access all the features. Once the setup was complete, it synced with the dashboard every 30 minutes to add all the new data. The dashboard has a clean interface, making it easy to find the information that I need. For more on the dashboard, check out the Ease of Use section below.
Check Call Logs
Spyier maintains a call log that tracks incoming and outgoing calls, the length of the call, and the time of day or night the call occurred. The log will show the phone number if the caller isn’t in my daughter’s contact list. I can then use this information to check who made the call and, if necessary, call back and find out what they want with my child.
The app also gives me complete access to the contacts saved on the phone, which include notes that my daughter might have saved about the contact and how many times they’ve connected. I like having access to this information because I can see if someone who my daughter marked as a bully or non-friend keeps calling. I know she’s being harassed, and I can do something to stop it.
Read Incoming and Outgoing SMS and Social Media Messages
While the call log feature is nice, kids don’t use the phone to make phone calls anymore. The majority of their communication is through SMS and chat apps. Spyier records all incoming and outgoing SMS messages, which you can read by clicking the Messaging tab on the dashboard sidebar.
If your child has an Android and you subscribe to the Premium or Family plan, it will record DMs and chats from 17 popular social media apps. The list includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Telegram. If your child has an iPhone, Spyier only has access to SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, and LINE.
I feel like the social media monitoring tool is a bit limiting since it only deals with chats and not the content beings shared. If you want alerts for messages or social media posts that are related to cyberbullying, violence, drugs, sex, and other dangerous or harmful categories, check out Bark. It connects with over 30 social media, SMS, and email platforms and has an advanced filter that sends real-time alerts when the filter is triggered. You can try Bark social media monitoring tools for free with their 7-day free trial and see how much valuable information you will get.
No Live Location or Geofence, But It Tracks Location History
One of the basic features I want from a spy app is the ability tocheck in on my child’s live location at any time. I was disappointed with what I saw from Spyier. The system only syncs every 30 minutes, so at best, I can see a recent location. It tracks the location history, listing the address, date and time, and a link to a Google Map to view the location. This is nice for looking back at where my daughter was, but not so helpful if I need to pick her up in case of an emergency.
In addition to tracking the phone’s location, I could also track the SIM card location. Spyier records the IMEI number that is unique to each SIM, and the system will recognize if it activates in a different phone. This is good if my child loses their phone or the GPS is disabled or not working; I can still track it. I also registered for the SIM change notification, so I can get an alert if my child attempts to change the phone number. I compared the location history from the Location tab and the SIM Card tab to ensure that my daughter is only using one phone.
What I’d want to see from Spyier is a geofence feature that would send me alerts if my daughter entered or left a specified area or region. I found this feature very useful and it makes me calm knowing that she is exactly where she should be. Unfortunately, and unlike other premium parental control apps, Spyier doesn’t have this option. For an app that has live location tracking and a geofence, I’d go with Qustodio. You can use it free for 30 days and see exactly where your child goes when they leave home.
Try Qustodio Free for 30 Days!
Records Browser History but Not Search History
The browsing history features worked on the three browsers I tested, including Incognito or Private Mode. It lists the URL, page title, last time the page was opened, the number of times my daughter went to the page, and whether it was added as a bookmark. I was disappointed that Spyier doesn’t record the search history, so I can see what my daughter was searching for and how she ended up on these pages. There are other parental control apps, and Qustodio is among them, that do better than that and records search and browser history so I can get a full picture of my daughter’s online habits. To be honest, I can’t even call it a parental control app, when I can’t see the content she searched for online. To me, that’s the whole point of getting these apps in the first place.
View Videos and Pictures Saved on the Phone
Any picture or video that is saved on my daughter’s phone is uploaded to the dashboard. It displays a thumbnail, which I can download on my computer if I need to watch the video or view the entire image.
See What Apps Are On Your Child’s Phone
In my opinion, this is a feature that doesn’t add that much value. All it does is list the apps that are installed on the device, and show the app logo. There is no information given about the app, how often it is opened, the age rating, a link to the app, or a way to block the app from being used.
Once again, when I compare this to other premium parental control apps, I can immediately notice how Spyier lacks the necessary features. I want the parental control app to give me the option to monitor how often my daughter uses each app, and I want be able to set time limits and even block the apps if necessary. As with other categories, Qustodio excels here as well, it does all the above and gives parents more control over the app usage of their kids.
Keylogger (Doesn’ty work on iOS!)
The keylogger is the great equalizer when it comes to many of the shortcomings that I found with Spyier. It records everything that your child types on their Android phone. I saw my daughter’s login credentials for social media sites, text messages that she wrote but didn’t send, and everything she typed in her browser, including searches. However, iOS users won’t be able to benefit from it, so if your child has an iPhone, you’d better go with other parental control apps that with full compatibility with iOS.
In addition, I noticed that the dashboard doesn’t have a list of words or phrases that triggers an alert. I had to go through the logs for each individual app, and read all the content to see if there was anything important for me to know, and it was frustrating and time-consuming.
Installation
There is no Spyier app available in the Google Play or App Store because it violates their terms of service. This is standard with spy apps, as both Google and Apple have rules regarding user privacy, and these apps bypass those rules. The good news is that you don’t have to jailbreak or root your device to install the app and access all the premium features.
How to Install Spyier on Android
You will need physical access to the Android device to install the app. After you purchase a subscription, you’ll receive a username, password, and a download link to your email. Before you can download the app, you’ll need to change the security settings on the device to all installations from unknown locations.
Go back to the main settings page, and open the Google account settings. Click on Google Play Protect > Click on the setting gear icon on the top right corner > Disable the option to scan apps with Play Protect.
Now, open the download link from the email and download and install the APK file. After agreeing to the terms of service, the Spyier setup wizard will show which permissions need to be adjusted for the app to work properly. Before the setup is complete, you’ll have the option of hiding Spyier so no app icon appears on the device or forgoing stealth mode and leaving the app icon for your child to see.
How to Install Spyier on iPhone
While you do not need physical access to your child’s iPhone to install Spyier, you will need the iCloud ID information.
After purchasing your subscription plan, you’ll receive an email with your login information. Press the Start Monitoring button to open the Control Panel and start the remote installation process. After selecting the iOS version in the Control Panel, you can enter the iCloud information.
Important: iCloud backup must be enabled, and two-factor authorization must be disabled for this installation to work. Otherwise, the only option is to jailbreak the device.
Select the phone you want to monitor and press the Next button, and Spyier will automatically install on the iPhone.
Press the Start button to begin monitoring the device. It can take 30 minutes to an hour for the servers to sync the data to the parental dashboard.
Ease of Use
I found Spyier to be very easy to use. Once the installation was complete, there was nothing left for me to do. I just sat back and let Spyier run in the background and monitor the device. Once a day, I checked the dashboard to view the data and see if there was anything alarming or out of the ordinary.
While there is a lot of data, it’s organized very neatly in the dashboard. This is the nerve center of Spyier. On the homepage, you can see the most common incoming and outgoing phone calls, who is texting, last known location (this is only updated every 30 minutes), and phone activities.
On the sidebar is a tabbed menu containing the data for each feature. I go through the tabs and can view all the text messages, browser history, location history, pictures and videos, messages on social media, and more.
The biggest problem I had using Spyier is that it doesn’t flag any issues or send alerts. While it’s nice that the dashboard is organized, I have to read through all the messages, look at all the pictures, and visit websites to see what’s going on with my child. Most of the information is harmless, and as I scanned through it, it can be easy to pass over or miss the one dangerous or inappropriate item.
Support
Before registering your account, the only support available are a few general FAQs and some tips and guides for getting started. However, there is no pre-sales chat support to ask questions about the service until after you make a purchase.
Once you have an account, you can open a ticket or send an email to customer support, and Spyier tries its best to answer within 48 hours. This is a long time to wait when compared to almost any other parental control app on the market. If I have a technical problem, it’s crucial for me to get a response and a solution as soon as possible, and I was very disappointed to find out I have to wait so long.
I prefer parental control apps with a fast and responsive support team that can answer my questions right away, such as Qustodio. They have live chat, with real people not bots, or I can schedule a phone call if I need remote tech support.
Try Qustodio Free for 30 Days!
FAQ
Does Spyier have a free plan?
Is Spyier detectable on the child’s device?
Does Spyier have rules that I can enforce on my child’s phone?
Does Spyier monitor social media?
Pricing
Spyier offers separate plans for Android and iOS devices, with a total of three plans for each platform. The Android Basic plan is designed to cater to a single device and does not include features such as the keylogger or social media chat monitoring. The Premium and Family plans include all the features and cover 1 and 3 devices, respectively.
All three iOS plans include all the same features. The only difference is the number of devices you can monitor.
- Premium: 1 device
- Family: 5 devices
- Business: 25 devices
There is no official money back guarantee. However, if you are unsatisfied with Spyier you can contact customer support within 60 days and request a refund. If they are unable to fix the problem, they can decide to offer you a refund.
Bottom Line
Spyier isn’t the best spy app I’ve tested but certainly not the worst; it falls out somewhere in the middle. I found that it has some good monitoring features, such as monitoring text messages, social media chats, location history, keylogger, and access to pictures and videos. I installed it in Stealth Mode, and my daughter had no idea that it was monitoring her phone. Yet, I prefer an app like Qustodio which allows me to set rules, web filters, and screen time limitations, in addition to monitoring the content.
